The knitwear has portions called “gores” formed at joining portions of the parts thereof, such as, for example, at sides of the knitwear and crotch portions of the same. The gores formed at those joining portions serve to add a depth to the knitwear comprising the planar knitted fabric parts, to thereby produce a comfortable wear to suit one's figure.
The applicant of this application already developed and presented a method for joining knitted fabrics of a tubular knitted fabric, according to which one knitted fabric of the tubular knitted fabric to be joined to the other knitted fabric to form the gores therebetween can be allowed to rotate with respect to the other knitted fabric in a direction in which a space between the both knitted fabrics is spread at a larger angle than an angle at which the one knitted fabric is perpendicular to the other knitted fabric (International Publication No. 01/88243).
In this joining method, gore portions of the same courses are previously formed in the both tubular knitted fabrics to be jointed together; then are overlapped with each other in such a manner that the loops located adjacent to each other with respect to the boundary between the front knitted fabric part and the back knitted fabric part are overlapped with each other and the loops located far away from each other with respect to the boundary are overlapped with each other; and then are subjected to the bind-off process, thereby forming the gore portions at the joining portions of the tubular knitted fabric.
This method for joining together the knitted fabrics having the gores can provide the knitwear that can allow a high freedom of body movement.
In this connection, it is desirable from the viewpoint of the body movement that when knitwear, such as, for example, a sweater, is knitted by the joining method mentioned above, the gore portions of the front knitted fabric part should be made larger than those of the back knitted fabric part to produce knitwear of further comfortable to wear.
Making the gore portions of the front knitted fabric part larger than those of the back knitted fabric part requires that the number of wales formed in the joining regions of the front body to front sleeves should be increased over the number of wales formed in the joining regions of the back body to back sleeves.
However, when the knitted fabrics are joined together in such a manner that the number of wales in the front and back joining regions are differentiated from each other, the knitted fabric part having smaller gore portions (the back body) is put in the state in which a part of the loops located at the far side from the body on the needle bed are shifted to the opposite needle bed (front needle bed) at the completion of the joining.
In other words, when the gores different in number of wales from each other are formed in the front and back joining regions in this manner, the front knitted fabric part having the larger gores decreases in knitting width below the back knitted fabric part. In order to lessen this difference in knitting width between the knitted fabrics retained on the front and back needle beds, rotation of the knitting is performed, whereby a loop of the back knitted fabric part located at its lateral end and retained on the needle bed is forced to shift to the outside of a loop of the knitted fabric part located at its lateral end and retained on the opposite needle bed.
When the rotation of the knitting is performed in this manner, the joining is completed in the state in which the loop held on the needle located at the position farthest from the knitted fabric part of the body on the back needle bed remains shifted to the front needle bed before formation of the gores. When the knitting to form the bodies and their respective sleeves into a single tubular starts in this state, a new loop is formed on the old loop originally situated in the back needle bed in the state in which the old loop remains shifted to the front needle bed.
It is to be noted here that when the loop situated in the back needle bed is shifted to the front needle bed, a twist is formed in that loop when shifted to the front needle bed. When a new loop is formed on that old loop, the old loop remains twisted undesirably. Particularly, such a twisted loop appears in sight in the sleeves.
In order to prevent the twist in that loop, the knitted fabrics of the sleeves are subjected to rotation of the knitting before joined to the body so that when the formation of the gores is ended, the loops of the back knitted fabric parts of the sleeves located at lateral ends thereof far from the back knitted fabric part of the body can be placed in the back needle bed and the loops of the front knitted fabric parts of the sleeves located at lateral ends thereof far from the front knitted fabric part of the body can be returned to the front needle bed, as shown in FIG. 18.
FIG. 18(a) shows the state of the knitwear at the end of the knitting up to its sides. The parts (311a, 311b, 312a, 312b, 321a, 321b, 331a, 331b) indicated by dotted lines are the joining regions of the front and back knitted fabric parts. FIG. 18(b) shows the state of the knitwear in which the sleeves are subjected to rotation of the knitting for forming the gores.
However, when the knitted fabrics are subjected to the rotation of the knitted in advance of the forming of the gores, the joining regions are put into the state shown in FIG. 18(b). Take the joining of the front knitted fabric part of the left sleeve 33 for instance, the joining region of the left sleeve 33 to be joined to the joining region 312a of the front body 31a is divided into the joining region 331b of the back knitted fabric part and the joining region 331a of the front knitted fabric part, as viewed in FIG. 18a. 
When the knitted fabrics are joined together in this state, the boundaries between the front and back knitted fabric parts of the right and left sleeves 32, 33 are displaced forwardly with respect to the boundaries between the front and back knitted fabric parts of the body 31.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a knitted fabric knitting method that can prevent loops of the front and back knitted fabric parts located at ends thereof adjacent to the boundaries therebetween from being shifted to the opposite needle beds before the start of joining of gores, to knit the knitted fabrics having the gores which are easy to knit and easy to move.